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Train2Game News: Mojang’s building blocks of hope for UN

Mojang is working with the UN to develop software that will involve young people in making changes in their home town

The new software, named Block By Block, uses the same principles as Mojangs Minecraft, giving young people a simple way to visualize the changes they want to make in the area where they live.

Minecraft building community Fyre UK has been enlisted to render the areas the project is interested in helping. Fyre UK is an English based community in Minecraft who make spectacular creations.

The three year partnership between the UN and Mojang starts with the renovation of Kibera in Nairobi. In those three years the hope is that they will improve hundreds of public spaces around the UN with the help of the young residents. It is not known which places will be using Block By Block as of yet. At this time we can only hope that the UK gets to benefit.

Mojang said “Block By Block aims to involve youth in the planning process in urban areas by giving them the opportunity to show planners and decision makers how they would like to see their cities in the future.”

“Minecraft has turned out to be the perfect tool to facilitate this process.”

“It has proven to be a great way to visualize urban planning ideas without necessarily having architectural training. The ideas presented by the citizens lay as a ground for political decisions.”

Mojang has already had some success with a similar programme called My Block in there native Sweden, allowing citizens to suggest changes for the towns they inhabit.

This is another example of how the software and hardware created in the games industry can do more than just entertain players, it can help around the world with ideas like this one.